Belgium 2020 © Albert Masias/MSF

Belgium

MSF has worked with refugees and migrants in Belgium since 2017. Our teams are currently responding to the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

Our work in Belgium

In 2021, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) continued to work closely with vulnerable groups such homeless people and migrants, particularly unaccompanied minors.

What's happening in Belgium?

During the winter and the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, we opened an emergency reception and care center for the most vulnerable people in Brussels. The aim was to isolate and treat people if they tested positive for COVID-19. We also supported the COVID vaccination campaign from May to September for all vulnerable people.

MSF Mobile Team in retiry home in Brussels

How we're helping in Belgium

In addition to the COVID-19 vaccination campaign, emergency shelter interventions were launched in February and May 2021. During the interventions we became aware of large numbers of unaccompanied foreign minors among our patients. These minors had not applied for asylum in Belgium and therefore found themselves without any support in the city. To address the specific needs of this vulnerable group, MSF opened an emergency reception center with a capacity of 80 beds, in October 2021. The center provided a place where the unaccompanied minors could access various services, including social support, medical and psychological care, and recreational activities, in addition to food and shelter.

In addition, an MSF outreach team assisted people with, or at risk of contracting, COVID-19 who are living in squats. The team also ran health promotion, and infection prevention and control activities in shelters for homeless people and migrants.

We also continued to work in the humanitarian hub, a joint project with other Belgian aid organizations and citizens' initiative in Brussels, where we have been offering mental health care to migrants since 2017.

Support during exceptional floods in Wallonia region When Wallonia was hit by exceptional floods in early July, we launched an emergency intervention in Liège province, one of the worst-affected areas. Our team supported a reception center for disaster victims by coordinating activities and providing mental health assistance.

View more related news & stories

Learn about MSF’s journalistic roots and our commitment to bear witness and speak out about the plight of the people we treat.

Workers carry an oxygen cylinder to the intensive care unit.

Story Mar 10, 2021

Scenes from a pandemic year

Story Dec 18, 2020

Witnessing 2020: The year in photos

Research Jul 22, 2020

Belgium: Left behind in the time of COVID-19

Learn about MSF’s journalistic roots and our commitment to bear witness and speak out about the plight of the people we treat.

View more related news & stories

How we're helping in 2021

330

Patients admitted for COVID-19

180

Outpatient consultations for COVID-19

1987

Year MSF first worked in the country

How you can help

Not everyone can treat patients in the field. But everyone can do something.

Some humanitarian crises make the headlines—others don’t. Unrestricted support from our donors allows us to mobilize quickly and efficiently to provide lifesaving medical care to the people who need it most, whether those needs are in the spotlight or not. And your donation is 100 percent tax-deductible.